Discover Music

October 26, 2016. Posted by David Tallacksen.

Bill May has been photographing the worlds most famous jazz musicians for decades. He also taught music to children in Newark for forty years and retired as the district's Director of Artistic and performing arts.

He found inspiration early in his life from his father, Boyd Vernon May, a man of faith who was a working man by day, and musician by night.

October 25, 2016. Posted by David Tallacksen.

Perched atop a hill on Martin Luther King Blvd in the heart of Newark’s central ward sits a soaring and powerful remnant of Newark’s rich history as an industrial giant, the famed Kruger-Scott Mansion.

The 26-room mansion, built in 1887 by German immigrant turned wealthy beer baron Gottfried Kruger, is one of the remaining symbols of the wealth that once permeated throughout the city.

The mansion, now on the national registry of historic places, was last owned by Louise Scott, a dynamic businesswoman who established a successful chain of beauty salons in Newark, and is believed to have been the city’s first African-American female millionaire. Ms. Scott purchased the home in 1959 and maintained it both as her residence and the location of her Scott College of Beauty Culture until her death.

Scott’s only daughter, Reverend Louise Scott-Rountree, grew up in the house from the time she was born and recalls what life was like in the now vacant mansion.

October 21, 2016. Posted by David Tallacksen.

In 1933, when Hitler came to power in Germany, there was a place on Springfield Avenue in Newark, called Schwaben-Halle, where Nazis used to gather.

But Newark had its own anti-Nazi groups along the same time.

One man, a boxer named Nat Arno was a strongman for one of the anti-Nazi groups. His friends and family - sister Rose Yannick, wife Ann Arno, and fellow boxers Dave Halper and Bernie Callatane - describe how Nat struck a powerful blow for Jewish families in Newark.

Warren Grover, a former president of the Jewish Historical Society in New Jersey wrote a book called "Nazi's in Newark." These are his recordings, now kept at Jewish Historical Society of New Jersey.

October 20, 2016

Herbie Hancock always seems to be on some kind of voyage. Whether he's improvising in a spaceship surrounded by 11 keyboards or forming new iterations of bands, you can always count on him to push the possibilities and the boundaries of jazz.

On this radio episode, Jazz Night in America host Christian McBride sits down with Hancock to discuss his technological journey over the years. We'll also hear stories from Herbie's longtime keyboard tech, Bryan Bell, and a testimonial from Paris Strother, keyboard player for the R&B trio KING.